“A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.”
 — I am not generally the Tom Ford-adulator in the editorial team here, but today I swear fealty to Tom Ford, who is indeed correct.

by Abe Sauer

The last time we heard from the corporate-funded Washington D.C.-based “free market” candidate seed organization American Majority, it was training candidates to assume local offices like school boards in Wisconsin (and elsewhere) to better implement the “tools” that legislators like Governor Scott Walker have fashioned.

Well, it appears American Majority has a new endeavor to help you “take control of your elections.” The American Majority Action Voter Fraud App. Except, on its way to stopping voting fraud, it seems the app may encourage election law violations.

As we already know from a video featuring the group’s Director of New Media Strategy, Austin James, instructing seminar attendees how to vote down liberal books on Amazon.com while at the same time voting up conservative books, American Majority likes technology. So it’s no surprise that “Just in time for Election Day,” American Majority started offering “the nation’s first mobile application to help identify, report and track suspected incidents of voter fraud and intimidation” and “help you report violations at the election booth and serve to uphold the democratic process.” (iPhone, Blackberry, Android). And it’s free!

Michelle Malkin called it “A Must-Download: American Majority Action’s voter fraud app. Use it!”

The American Spectator wrote, “Ever wanted to defend democracy, but find the hustle and bustle of modern life keeping you from it? Well, now thanks to American Majority Action go-go Americans can protect their right to vote via their chosen mobile device…My understanding from the bumper stickers around my neighborhood is freedom isn’t free, but I guess it sure is a nice perk that this related doohickey is.”

Red State and Andy Breitbart’s Big Government published carbon copy announcements endorsing the app. (How embarrassing.)

Coincidentally, though American Majority declines to take credit for it, it has also created the nation’s first voter intimidation app.

See, of all the neat features (from “Over 10 Issue Report Types” to “pre-populated reports”), the one that might most interest election officials is the “Easy to Use Image Capture.”

From the FAQs section of the app page:

Can I enter a service request/report without taking a picture?
Currently the mobile app requires a picture, however you can report issues from VoterFraudApp.com without one.

In most states, election officials frown on picture taking at polling places. In 13 states they have prohibited it. Seven states actually have state laws making such photography illegal. For instance, just listen to the unambiguous language of California Election Code § 18541: “No person shall… within 100 feet of a polling place… photograph, videotape, or otherwise record a voter entering or exiting a polling place.” How about Florida’s 102.031(5): “No photography is permitted in the polling room or early voting area.”

Or Texas (§ 61.013): “A person may not use a wireless communication device within 100 ft. of a voting station” and “A person may not use any mechanical or electronic means of recording images or sound within 100 feet of a voting station.”

Funny because here is a report (including a photo from what looks like a ballot) from Texarkana, TX.

Is there a “is this app illegal in my state” feature on American Majority’s Voter Fraud App? No.

The app has been around since last November, with Austin James (see above) telling Fox News in November that since 8,000 had downloaded the app, “he’s received 50 reports of election impropriety.” Does that Make James and American Majority an accomplice in breaking election law?

And who is behind American Majority’s encouragement to violate election law (besides Drew Ryun)?

Why, it’s none other than Anita Moncrief, whose American Majority Action Voter Fraud App “About” bio proudly states, “Whistleblower on ACORN and Project Vote [who] now spends her time educating others on the importance of fair elections and the corruption that still exists within the system.”

Abe Sauer can be reached at abesauer at gmail dot com.

Most people spend their app pennies and time on effects apps for photos. Everyone has Instagram, so they can put scratchy, slightly out of focus, over-saturated pictures on their Tumblrs, and it looks so meaningful. This is a thing that people really like doing, and even those of us who disapprove must learn to accept it. Instagram is the top free photography app in the Apple store! So the people have spoken. Go on, download it, I know you want to.

Likewise, Hipstamatic is the #3 paid app right now. Hipstamatic also “processes” your digital pictures to make them look old-timey film-ey. So this is a look that won’t be going away anytime soon. But sometimes you need to do things to pictures that are actually useful. For instance, maybe you want to just crop an edge out of a photo; maybe you have a great photo but the focus is slightly off and you want to cheat it a little by sharpening. Or say you’re on top of a mountain and you want to shoot 360. Your Instamatic won’t help you then!

Read the rest here.

(Sponsored posts are purely editorial projects that we are pleased to have presented by a participating sponsor, in this case Intel: My Life Scoop; advertisers do not produce the content.)

“A memorial to Christina-Taylor Green, who was born on 9/11 and was the youngest victim of the shooting rampage in Tucson, will include a length of steel beam from ground zero.”
 — Everybody feel bad for a while now.

by L.V. Anderson

21. Batter Blaster, ready-to-cook pancake and waffle batter

20. 2003’s Blaster computer worm

19. Commie Blaster, a Communist-exposing website

18. Search Engine Blaster, an Internet marketing service

17. Ass Blaster Hot Sauce

16. Star Wars Jango Fett Blaster, a toy weapon

15. Turbo Jam Fat Blaster, a fitness DVD

14. Creative Sound Blaster World of Warcraft Wireless Headset

13. Salad Blaster, a plastic food-storage container

12. Yamaha Blaster, an all-terrain vehicle

11. Transformers Action Master Blaster, an action figure

10. Tigi Rockaholic Rock Out Shine Blaster, hair serum

9. Ghettoblaster, a music and culture magazine

8. Completely Bare Bikini Bump Blaster, medicated pads for the prevention of ingrown hairs

7. Sleep Blaster, an alarm-clock iPhone application

6. Profoot Callus Blaster, a foot-smoothing gel

5. Burglar Blaster, an electronic pepper-spray system

4. Math Blaster, an educational children’s game

3. B’laster Garage Door Lube

2. SpywareBlaster, security software

1. Bug Blaster, an insect-control hose nozzle

L.V. Anderson lives in Brooklyn.

“Federal land in Wyoming holding roughly 750 million tons of coal will be leased to mining companies, the Interior Department announced.”
 — We’re really getting the larger culture war on all fronts these days, aren’t we! But good news for haters of America: all that coal just makes overseas jobs.

by Awl Sponsors

Hello! The Awl is excited to be taking part in a new WordPress project, PopPressed. It features daily arts and style coverage from around the web (present company included). The collaboration between the blogging platform and Federated Media promises “the freshest in culture” across photos and features. It’s presented and supported by Lexus’ new CT Hybrid.

PopPressed covers things like sustainability, graphic design and entertainment. These are all things you are most likely interested in! For example, here’s a post they used from The Awl.

You can follow PopPressed on Twitter and Facebook and also you are invited to send along your own concepts for coverage.

Everyone is amused by the fact that Elizabeth Taylor outlived Mel Gussow, her Times obituary writer, but this has actually been going on for years now. Still, that doesn’t make this any less true.

It’s a torture to young people, of every generation, when its favorite musicians get “soft.” Like, when Peter Murphy, the lead singer of Bauhaus, started putting out post-New Wave solo records with backup singers. I felt this way (wrongly!) when Kristin Hersh started putting out gentle acoustic-guitar music. (She was on her way, however, to 50 Foot Wave, which has an even harsher sound than Throwing Muses ever did.) Or like when REM entered its endless middle period. And Siouxsie! (From goth to cheesecloth dancepop!) Some of them are like Jonathan Richman, who didn’t want to hurt any baby’s ears. More often it’s a subtle graduation — primarily because the recording artist can finally afford decent producers. (See: L7 and The Donnas, and, more extremely, Marilyn Manson or The Offpsring.) Let’s not even talk about David Bowie, with the zigging and the zagging between terrible and wonderful. (Even “dance” outfits can go soft, like the long late period of Saint Etienne, though to be fair, their last album was genius.) So many artists accidentally or intentionally enter the arena of Adult Indie. Which is already a crowded field!

The Delgados were roundly trounced and embraced for being stalwarts of “indie adult-contemporary.” Nitsuh Abebe wrote the most-important take on this, in 2003:

This is the music that may eventually prompt your preteen kids to roll their eyes and make unenthusiastic noises when you force them to listen during long car trips. Jeff Tweedy may become your Sting, Wayne Coyne your Peter Gabriel, Mercury Rev your Steely Dan — and there’s no reason any of this will be any less wonderful than the Carole King LPs in your parents basements.

To update: The Strokes will be your James Taylor. Or, better, look forward to the Sleigh Bells covering Joni Mitchell.

And yes, so much of that has come to pass already! (Sting where is thy death, etc.) There’s just Nick Cave, the last hold-out. (In between all those sad love ballads, of course.)

Operating somewhere between post-lounge, dream pop, indie chillwave and what is now called post-yacht-rock, over the last ten years, bands as diverse as the Delgados and Tahiti 80 and Slumber Party made (great) music that was never hard, but music that seemed it was asking you to sell out just to listen to it. Could you listen to this in front of your friends? You would not.

Then Destroyer came with “their” ninth album, and almost fixed all this with the ultimate meta-take on “going soft.”

Who can care? One of the joys of getting older is that your Morrisseys, and now, your PJ Harveys, will age along with you. And as radio formatting becomes so entrenched as to be ridiculous, and record store sections die away, genre means so much less. The new music industry (and you know, lack of it) killed off the genre snobbishness that gripped so many of us as youngs. Having a “shuffle” function for mp3s may have ruined us all for rigidity. And musicians can become itinerant genre workers, and we can worry about what we actually like.

This time it’s not a hoax: man can actually hijack Times Square screens. Congrats, Adi Isakovic!